Sloss Furnaces

Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama, is a former pig-iron blast furnace plant that helped make the city a centre of Southern industry. Founded by James Withers Sloss and blown in in 1882, the works produced iron for decades, its towering furnaces and web of pipes, stoves and sheds embodying the heavy industry that gave Birmingham its nickname, the "Magic City". After operations ceased in 1971 the site was preserved rather than demolished, and in 1981 it was designated a National Historic Landmark, one of the few 20th-century blast furnaces conserved as a museum.

The hard and sometimes dangerous work carried out here has fed a reputation for the site being haunted, with stories often attached to a foreman said to have died on the job. Visitors and event-goers report footsteps, voices and shadowy figures among the machinery. These accounts are anecdotal and atmospheric, easily encouraged by the vast, rusting industrial setting, and are not established fact.

Sloss Furnaces is most valuable as a rare survival of industrial heritage and a monument to the workers, many of them Black labourers, whose toil built the city. It is best appreciated for that documented human and technological history.

Sloss Furnaces is owned by the City of Birmingham and operated with the support of the Sloss Furnaces Foundation as a museum and cultural venue. General admission is free, with self-guided visits, occasional guided tours for a small fee, metal-arts programmes and a busy calendar of events; opening days and hours are limited, so checking ahead is advisable.

As an authentic industrial site with uneven surfaces, ironwork and open structures, visitors should wear sturdy shoes, supervise children, heed all signage and barriers, and follow staff guidance for their own safety.